Former US president Jimmy Carter, a gentleman defined by his modesty and ideology, has died at 100.
Several US leaders come from moderate childhoods. Born in Prairies, Georgia, Jimmy Carter’s Depression-era youth was no exception. His house lacked running water and electricity, while his rural higher class lacked a 12th grade.
The extent to which these humble beginnings would have an impact on his life, most notably during his day as America’s 39th senator from 1977 to 1981, was what made Carter unique.
A farmer, nuclear submarine agent, state government and happy Christian, Carter assumed company during a stormy time in American history. In particular, three problems are widely acknowledged for allowing the former peanut farmer to win the presidency, but they also continue to shape how Americans view British politicians and power 50 years later.
The turbulent – and some might say humiliating – US drawback from Vietnam was the first crises that hit televisions across the nation in March 1973.
The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC ) members imposed an embargo on oil exports to the United States in October 1973, which set off the second crisis. The US market, which is currently at a 4-year low, and dramatic increases in unemployment and inflation were all caused by it.
The Watergate scandal, the next and most well-known problems, forced President Richard Nixon to withdraw, making it his first national resignation in US story, amid mounting proof that he had committed atrocities and abuses of power while in office. Nixon’s son, and Carter’s Republican challenger in the 1976 presidential election, Gerald Ford, reportedly pardoned Nixon for any acts he had committed in business.
A relatively unknown Georgia governor’s victory in the 1976 vote was aided by Carter’s humility and idealism in the midst of three big US crises and his shock victory in Iowa’s first Democratic primary state.
Following quite a turbulent time, many Americans sought from their leader his dedication to restore conscience to the White House and US foreign policy, along with his campaign pledge to never rest to the British people.
The president, 1977-1981
Carter’s White House journey was smothered by previous crises, but his administration definitely had its fair share of them. How much of Carter’s actions contributed to the difficulties he faced while in company, researchers continue to debate.
However, his public approval ratings – 75 % when he entered office in 1977 and 34 % when he left office in 1981 – give an indication of where the American people placed their blame.
In his inaugural address on January 20, 1977, Carter outlined his broader perspective and policy agenda while much of the emphasis was on addressing the persistent vitality problems at the start of his presidency.
Carter, a man who had harshly criticized Ford’s pardon of Nixon, thanked the retiring senator for everything he had “done to recover our land.” He went on to talk of “our new mistakes”, the plan “if we despise our own government, we have no potential”, and his hope for Americans to become “proud of their own government after again”.
Two years later, he echoed these attitudes in the most well-known discourse of his administration. Amid but another fuel horror that led to long lines at petrol stations, high prices and an economic slowdown, Carter’s televised address to the nation decried a” crisis of confidence” amid “growing question about the meaning of our own life”.
Many now view the Carter administration’s pivotal moment as a turning point because it would never fully recover from which all the legislation in the world can’t fix what’s wrong with America.
When Carter ran against the Nixon and Ford administrations, his righteous criticism of them had benefited the electorate. However, after Carter had been in the office for more than two years, some people saw it as an abdication of responsibility.
Ted Kennedy, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, would go on to criticize Carter’s speech as one that dismissed” the golden promise that is America” and instead embraced a pessimistic vision in which Americans were “blamed for every national ill, scolded as greedy, wasteful and mired in malaise”.
Only four months after Carter’s infamous speech, yet another crisis erupted. Ayatollah Khomeini’s supporters held 52 US diplomats hostage in Iran. They would end up being held captive for the remainder of Carter’s term in office as a result of the US government’s failed rescue mission in April 1980 only serving to worsen the situation.
Carter undoubtedly achieved a lot of success in terms of foreign policy with his normalization of ties with China and his facilitation of the Camp David Accords, an unprecedented peace agreement between the Israeli and Egyptian governments.
Ted Kennedy chose to challenge Carter for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination because of the perception that he would have a failed presidency.
Carter would ultimately defeat Kennedy for the Democratic nomination, but the harm done to Carter’s presidency made it possible for a much more optimistic Ronald Reagan to triumph in a landslide victory over the sitting president in November 1980.
Lasting significance
In many ways, Carter exemplifies what a post-presidential life might entail after the 56-year-old president failed to win a second term. His successors in the Oval Office would occasionally find it difficult to follow, despite his diplomatic and humanitarian efforts that would earn him the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
Carter’s steadfast Christian faith and idealism persisted throughout his life, from the work of his own organization to his commitment to building homes with Habitat for Humanity.
Although Carter was the first US president to declare that human rights were a central part of US foreign policy, most Americans today may perceive it as unremarkable for a US president to support them. Human rights have undoubtedly had an impact on his presidential successors ‘ policies, despite not having always been at the forefront of their plans.
This includes Ronald Reagan, who criticized Carter’s emphasis on human rights during the 1980 presidential campaign but later took a strong stand against Soviet human rights abuses.
Most living Americans were not yet born on Carter’s last day in office. In consequence, the former president is perhaps best known for living lavishly after retiring from office and living in a small Georgian town where his secret service detail’s armored vehicles were more expensive than the home the former president lived in.
Whether or not they realize it or not, Jimmy Carter’s humility, morality, and idealism still have an impact on American culture and thinking today.
Jared Mondschein is director of research, US Studies Centre, University of Sydney
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